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A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

Codie Stott's family claim she was forced to spend three-and-a-half hours in a police cell after she was reported by her teachers.

The 14-year-old - who was released without charge - said it had been a simple matter of commonsense and accused the school and police of an over-the-top reaction.

Codie Stott: The 14-year-old schoolgirl was arrested
for racism and spent three-and-a-half hours in police custody

The incident happened in the same local education authority where a ten-year-old boy was prosecuted earlier this year for calling a schoolfriend racist names in the playground, a move branded by a judge "political correctness gone mad."

Codie was attending a GCSE science class at Harrop Fold High School in Worsley, Greater Manchester, when the incident happened.

The teenager had not been in school the day before due to a hospital appointment and had missed the start of a project, so the teacher allocated her a group to sit with.

"She said I had to sit there with five Asian pupils," said Codie yesterday.

"Only one could speak English, so she had to tell that one what to do so she could explain in their language. Then she sat me with them and said 'Discuss'."

According to Codie, the five - four boys and a girl - then began talking in a language she didn't understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher.

"I said 'I'm not being funny, but can I change groups because I can't understand them?' But she started shouting and screaming, saying 'It's racist, you're going to get done by the police'."

Codie said she went outside to calm down where another teacher found her and, after speaking to her class teacher, put her in isolation for the rest of the day.

A complaint was made to a police officer based full-time at the school, and more than a week after the incident on September 26 she was taken to Swinton police station and placed under arrest.

"They told me to take my laces out of my shoes and remove my jewellery, and I had my fingerprints and photograph taken," said Codie. "It was awful."

After questioning on suspicion of committing a section five racial public order offence, her mother Nicola says she was placed in a bare cell for three-and-a-half hours then released without charge.

She only returned to lessons this week and has been put in a different science class.

Yesterday Miss Stott, 37, a cleaner, said: "Codie was not being racist." "The reaction from the school and police is totally over the top and I am furious my daughter had to go through this trauma when all she was saying was common sense. "

"She'd have been better off not saying anything and getting into trouble for not being able to do the work."

Miss Stott, who is separated from Codie and her 18-year-old brother Ashley's father, lives with her partner Keith Seanor, a 36-year-old cable layer, in Walkden.

School insiders acknowledge that at least three of the students Codie refused to sit with had recently arrived in this country and spoke little English.

But they say her comments afterwards raised further concerns, for example allegedly referring to the students as "blacks" - something she denied yesterday.

The school is now investigating exactly what happened before deciding what action - if any - to take against Codie.

Headteacher Dr Antony Edkins said: "An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark by one student towards a group of Asian students new to the school and new to the country."

"We aim to ensure a caring and tolerant attitude towards people and pupils of all ethnic backgrounds and will not stand for racism in any form."

Fewer than two per cent of pupils at Harrop Fold come from an ethnic minority.

It had the worst GCSE results in the entire Salford LEA last year with just 15 per cent of pupils achieving five good passes including English and maths, a third of the national average.

Since being placed in special measures, Ofsted inspectors say it has improved, not least as a result of Dr Edkins's "outstanding" leadership.

Salford was at the centre of a storm last April after a ten-year-old boy was hauled before a court for allegedly calling an 11-year-old mixed race pupil a 'Paki' and 'Bin Laden' in a playground argument at a primary school in Irlam.

When the case came before District Judge Jonathan Finestein he said the decision to prosecute showed "how stupid the whole system is getting".

But was himself fiercely attacked by teaching union leaders for "feeding a pernicious agenda" that aided the BNP.

The prosecution was eventually dropped.

Last night Robert Whelan, deputy director of the Civitas think-tank, said: "It's obviously common sense that pupils who don't speak English cause problems for other pupils and for teachers."

"I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time, but it's a sad reflection on the school if they can't deal with it without involving the police."

"A lot of these arrests don't result in prosecutions - they aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say."

Greater Manchester Police denied Codie had been kept in a cell but would not comment further.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Some of this report seems a little hard to swallow - on first read I thought poor kid, her teacher is the one who needs locking up.

On the second read - I can't quite get my head around how the teacher is able to communicate to those students who do not speak or understand English - surely if they had been attending this school since the age of 11 or so, they would have been taught the language by now.

If they cannot communicate in English then I think it was very wrong of the teacher to place Cody with that particular group.

I have never attended a mixed-race school - am I to understand that it is normal for a percentage of the students not to be able to communicate in English???

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

well many speak there won language in classes (not saying theres anything wrong with it) but in this case it seems like they were blastnely speakin a language she couldnt understand! so i think good on her for sticking up for herself! and if they really coudlnt spek english then i also dont see why she was put in that group wether or not she missed school.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

While students may verbally acquire a second language quickly and have mastery of the spoken language within 3 years; true mastery of a second language includes being able to write and read the language, which takes up to 7 years.
Many ESL (English as a second language) learners will routinely revert to their native language when nervous, stressed, or bored. Many of my students would simply do it to either annoy me or to cheat on assignments.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Am I missing something here?

A girl is asked to sit and 'Discuss' English language with a group of students who can't speak English and she's branded as 'racist' for pointing out the obvious i.e. It is futile to attempt to discuss the complexities of the English language with people unable to understand basic English?

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

There is no racism. No biggy. I didnt read the whole article, only first few lines but i would say, the girl's reaction is understandable.

In a way one can consider ot as a sign. People have to start getting used to be global citizen. The world is getting smaller. Borders dissapearing. So one cannot expect to just only be surrounded by 'similar kind' during their lifetime, unless one chooses to live in isolation.

If i were a parent of the girl i would encourage her to get to know them, learn the 'Asian' (whichever it was mentioned in the article). It will do good for her future. She can answer back at them if they were talking bad things about her. Always think about oppurtunities and building up network. Too young? Too early, too soon??? Oh well.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Headteacher Dr Antony Edkins said: "An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark by one student towards a group of Asian students new to the school and new to the country."

"We aim to ensure a caring and tolerant attitude towards people and pupils of all ethnic backgrounds and will not stand for racism in any form."

Fewer than two per cent of pupils at Harrop Fold come from an ethnic minority.

I'm confused how her request to be put into an English-speaking group was considered to be a racially motivated remark. When the teacher divided the class into groups, it wouldn't have been fair if she had put each of the foreign students into separate groups, since none of them would have understood the other students in their group. But that's essentially what she did with the girl in the article, Codie Stott.

She should have put Codie in with the other students, and kept the five Asian students together, since one girl could speak English. That one English-speaking student could have acted as the moderator for her group and translated for the others...

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

The medium is the message.

Don't just look at the story. Look at the media presenting it. The Daily Mail/Metro/Evening Standard/thisislondon are all the same newspaper. The stance is right-wing, Tory supporting, little/middle England, anti-gay, Eurosceptic, moralistic.

There are only 3 daily newspapers worth reading in England: The Times, The Guardian and The Independent and their Sunday versions.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Originally Posted by greaves

The medium is the message.

Don't just look at the story. Look at the media presenting it. The Daily Mail/Metro/Evening Standard/thisislondon are all the same newspaper. The stance is right-wing, Tory supporting, little/middle England, anti-gay, Eurosceptic, moralistic.

Which means the girl was actually a racist swastika-bearing square-tashed goose-stepper intent on wiping out any race other than the Aryan? Come off it Greavsie, this incident was a load of bollox brought about by some overtly PC teacher trying to prove a point.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Originally Posted by Nonimus

Which means the girl was actually a racist swastika-bearing square-tashed goose-stepper intent on wiping out any race other than the Aryan? Come off it Greavsie, this incident was a load of bollox brought about by some overtly PC teacher trying to prove a point.

i dont even think it was that complicated.

I think the teacher was just a controll freak who couldnt stand being told that she did the wrong thing by a student.

She just used a PC excuse to mask her innapropriate resentment.

again... even if the kid really was a rascist, which i doubt, if you were interested in education, you would just assign her work on race relations and that type of thing...

but to jail her?

that is whacked out and soooo over the top it reeks of authority abuse.

Re: Schoolgirl arrested for refusing to study with non-English pupils

Here’s a story from England. One might think that the purpose of a study group, A, is to study subject, X. So A is successful to the extent that A masters X. See how that figures in this story from The Brussels Journal:

In al-Britannia, you end up in jail if you complain that immigrants do not speak English, but if you are saying that those who insult Islam should be killed, it’s OK.

A teenage girl was questioned by police after allegedly making a racist remark to Asian students in the classroom. The 14-year-old pupil had refused to take part in a science tutorial with five other students at Harrop Fold High School, Salford, after claiming they didn’t speak English. After questioning by police she was released without charge but the school say they are investigating the matter.

[…] Head Dr Antony Edkins said: “An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark by one student towards a group of Asian students new to the school and this country.”

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English. Codie Stott’s family claim she was forced to spend three-and-a-half hours in a police cell after she was reported by her teachers. According to Codie, the five – four boys and a girl – then began talking in a language she didn’t understand, thought to be Urdu, so she went to speak to the teacher.

“I said ‘I’m not being funny, but can I change groups because I can’t understand them?’ But she started shouting and screaming, saying ‘It’s racist, you’re going to get done by the police’.” Codie said she went outside to calm down where another teacher found her and, after speaking to her class teacher, put her in isolation for the rest of the day.

A complaint was made to a police officer based full-time at the school, and more than a week after the incident on September 26 she was taken to Swinton police station and placed under arrest. “They told me to take my laces out of my shoes and remove my jewellery, and I had my fingerprints and photograph taken,” said Codie. “It was awful.”

[…] Robert Whelan, deputy director of the Civitas think-tank, said: […] “A lot of these arrests don’t result in prosecutions – the aim is to frighten us into self-censorship until we watch everything we say.”

The Metropolitan Police has also decided not to take action against the controversial Muslim figure, Anjem Choudary, who allegedly said in a television interview about the row over the Pope that anyone who insulted the Muslim faith would be “subject to capital punishment”.

Some people, apparently, do not have to watch everything they say. The less control the authorities have with Muslims, the more control they want to exercise over non-Muslims. This strange mix of powerful censorship of public debate, yet little control over public law and order, has by some been labeled anarcho-tyranny. The reason why European authorities are becoming increasingly totalitarian in their censorship efforts http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1199 is to conceal the fact that they are no longer willing or able to uphold even the most basic security of their citizenry.

Urdu is the major language in Pakistan. Speakers of Urdu, by my reckoning, are likely to be either Muslim or Christian in culture, with the former the most likely possibility. We’re not told what subject was being studied. Codie finds herself part of Study Group A, studying subject X. The other members of Study Group A are also studing subject X. Problem: regardless of their cultural origin, they find they can only access subject X by means of language. All but Codie share a common language, Urdu. Codie - and I’m guessing here - supposes that she doesn’t have time to learn Urdu so she can access subject X with her classmates so she asks for transfer to hypothetical Study Group B where they speak Mandarin, one of the languages she does speak.

Codie is surprised to learn, however, that the subject of study is not really X, but Y. I’m not sure what Y is, though it is likely one of the following:

You ought to do whatever you teacher tells you to do, however nonsensical.
You ought to pursue common study with people even if you can’t understand a word they say.
Not rocking the boat is more important than learning an actual academic subject.
Not letting on that not speaking the language of the majority of the people in your group is a virtue.
In any given large group, the majority language group should always submit to the linguistic preferences of minority language groups.
Or maybe I’m missing the whole story. Perhaps the real story is that the crime rate in Manchester has gotten so low that the police have so much time on their hands that they see a need to involve themselves in policing study group assignments.

We still have crazy people here in America. Check out this story at the Education Wonks. http://educationwonk.blogspot.com/20...ning-amok.html It’s about a fellow with a doctorate in classics from Harvard who dedicated himself to teaching in a public school. His Latin students were very successful. The parents loved him. But he’s not qualified to teach in the public schools. Are we understanding education properly when we judge one’s qualification to be based on jumping through particular hoops rather than in creating learning in students? Just another outcome of ECDD (Every Child Dumbed Down) NCLB.